Top 20 Games Similar to Stellaris

Stellaris is a real-time strategy game set in space and takes place in the year 2200. Players control ships and research vessels, among other things. The combat is more focused on preparation and precision. The overall strategy is oriented towards diplomacy and exploration.

There are also diplomatic options such as alliances and trade agreements that can be formed with other races. You’ll start the game by choosing a breed, as well as its ethics and technologies. If you select an Alien and change its morals, it will influence its external appearance. All breeds can have naval engineering styles from other breeds.

You will start with a planet under your influence along with a command ship, a small fleet of warships, a spaceport, and a scientific ship. Initially, your goal is to explore and colonize space. Other activities, such as diplomacy and governing an empire, come next.

There are also situations where crises arise such as when an empire is neglected. Neglecting an empire will result to invasion by extragalactic forces.

The games we have selected connect most instinctively the different games similar to Stellaris.

As often in a 4X game you will have several missions: “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate”. In more exact terms, you will be exploring, expanding, exploiting and exterminating. It is a deep strategic concept that allows a lot of possibilies, especially in games with procedurally generated content.

Stellaris came as a surprise in a market where the real-time strategy genre had long been set aside, apart from a few successful ones.

That’s why Stellaris got good scores globally, but obviously you have to love the genre. Stellaris brings new features to the genre with its content and random encounters, its absolutely incredible scale, and almost infinite possibilities.

Stellaris will definitely be a difficult game to match both in functionality and pure content, especially for fans of the genre. If you do not know the genre, the game will still be a pleasant surprise.

What do these games have in common?

Stellaris is not only a game of strategy, but also 4X, diplomacy, colonization, and so much more. You will understand that Stellaris regroups several types of games. Its spatial theme is also common to several other games like the Mass Effect Trilogy, Endless Space 2, or the famous multiplayer MMO, EVE Online.

There are also games that are more focused on physical space simulation, or on the course of a space voyage, such as the well known and entertaining Kerbal Space Program, or Starbound, where you will have to navigate a crew through the journeys of ‘space’.